Capitulum VII – Grammatica

1. The dative case is the “to or for” case. The italicized words in these sentences are indirect objects. In Latin the dative case endings show that a word is functioning as an indirect object. The first sentence shows the masculine singular, the second the masculine plural, dative ending. What are the feminine singular and plural endings?

a. Julius is giving Marcus an apple. ® Iūlius Mārcō mālum dat.

b. Julius is giving apples to the boys. ® Iūlius puerīs māla dat.

c. Julius is giving a pear to his daughter. ® Iūlius fïliae suae pirum dat.

d. Julius is giving his woman-slaves pears. ® Iūlius ancillīs suīs pira dat.

A dative case ending indicates that the word is answering the question word cui, which means “to or for whom?” Cui is the dative singular form of the interrogative pronoun. The personal pronoun – which could stand in the place of the noun to which it refers – has only one form for all three genders, eī (singular) and iīs (plural). Examples:

a. Syra enters Julia’s bedroom. Julia gives her the mirror. ® Syra cubiculum Iūliae intrat. Iūlia eī speculum dat.

b. The boys run into the atrium where Julius gives them apples. ® Puerī currunt in ātrium ubi Iūlius iīs māla dat.

c. To whom is Julia giving a kiss? ® Cui dat Iūlia ōsculum?

2. The reflexive pronoun – third person – is “sē”. It is in the accusative case. Examples: “Iūlia sē in speculō spectat. Ea nōn sē vertit.” ® “Julia is looking at herself in the mirror. She doesn’t turn herself around.” Distinguish this from "eum" or "eam".

3. More about prepositions. Some prepositions can be used with either the accusative case or the ablative case, and the meaning of the preposition changes with the change in the case ending of its object. One of the most common of these is “in”. With the accusative case it means “into” but with the ablative case it means “in” or “on”. “In hortō” ® in the garden; but “in hortum” ® into the garden.

4. More about question words. The question word “nōnne” means that the person asking the question is expecting a yes answer. The question word “num” means that the person asking the question is expecting a no answer. “immō” emphasizes a denial. When Julia says to Syra “immō foedus est” she means “No, on the contrary, it’s ugly.”

5. Greetings and Salutations. “Salvē” is used when saying hello to person. “Salvēte” is used when saying hello to more than one person.

6. One “et” after another “et”. The way to say something like “the boy likes both apples and pears” is “Et māla et pira amat puer.” Similarly the way to say something like “Neither Dāvus nor Ursus is present” is “Neque Davus neque Ursus adest.” The formulation “not only. . . but also” is “nōn sōlum. . . sed etiam” as in “Julius gives apples and pears not only to the children but also to the slaves” ® “Iūlius nōn sōlum līberīs sed etiam servīs māla piraque dat.”

7. The demonstrative pronoun “hic, haec, hoc” – These are the nominative singular masculine, feminine and neuter forms. They mean “this”, or “this one here” or “he, she, it”.

8. “plēnus” is an adjective that means “full” and the genitive which depends on it indicates what the noun it describes is full of. E.g., “saccus plēnus mālōrum” ® “bag full of apples”

9. Compound verbs are often made by putting a preposition in front of a simple verb. The examples in this chapter are “in-est” “ad-venit” “ad-it” “ex-it” ® “goes in” “comes to” “goes to” “goes out”

10. "Ex/ē" is like “ab/ā” before vowels and consonants. “ex” is used before vowels. “ē” can be used before consonants. “ē” is not used before vowels.